This invention relates generally to digital audio/visual actuation devices, and more particularly to an improved method for creating, modifying, and playing a customized playlist that may be utilized by such digital audio/visual actuation devices at any later time.
A problem commonly encountered with digital audio/visual actuation devices capable of playing two or more xe2x80x9ctracksxe2x80x9d, or collections of information, in a consecutive manner is how to play tracks in an order other than the order in which the tracks are normally to be played, as usually dictated by the order in which the tracks are stored on a digital storage device such as a compact disc (CD). This concern is addressed by creating xe2x80x9cplaylistsxe2x80x9d to be played by the digital audio/visual actuator device that may be customized to the tastes and needs of the individual user. The tracks that comprise the playlist may be songs or other audio clips, video clips, or audio/visual clips and are typically identified by the table of contents (TOC), a database containing such information as the number of tracks and length of each track. Digital audio/visual actuator devices include, but are not limited to, optical actuator devices, video actuator devices, audio actuator devices, or combinations thereof, such as, for instance, boomboxes. Examples of such digital audio/visual actuator devices include the compact disc (CD) player, the digital audio tape (DAT) player, the cassette recorder, the digital visual disc/mini disc (DVD/MD) player, and other audio/visual equipment.
Consider, as an example, the creation of a playlist for a CD player. As is known in the art, the CD player function may be fulfilled by a CD player having no other function or by audio/visual (AN) equipment having a compact disc player function, as well as other AN functions. The user of a CD player may create a customized playlist that selects tracks to be played in an order different from their chronological order on a CD. This may include, in the case of a single CD, rearranging the order in which tracks of the CD are played and additionally, in the case of a multiple CD player capable of housing multiple CDs simultaneously, selecting tracks from the multiple CDs in an order other than the order in which the tracks are stored on the CD and also in an order that is not bound by the position of one CD vis-a-vis another CD. The user of the CD player may accordingly create a customized playlist that lists CD tracks in the order in which the user would like to hear them played regardless of the order in which they are stored on one or more CDs housed in the CD player.
CD players may possess the means for the user to create a custom playlist. Typically, however, CD players, as is the case with other digital audio/visual actuator devices, offer an extremely weak and cumbersome human interface for this task. The user must rely on the front panel controls of the CD player itself to create a playlist. The front panel controls of a CD player are awkward and counterintuitive to use, especially when one considers that they typically have multiple functions that cannot be dedicated just to the task of creating a playlist. As a result, keys on the front panel of the CD player may not dedicated to the playlist creation function and thus may be counterintuitive to use for this purpose. Exacerbating this awkwardness is the fact that keys to be used for creating a playlist may not even have alpha-numeric properties.
A further difficulty with utilizing a custom playlist is that the created playlist is itself stored in volatile memory of the digital audio/visual actuator device and not in a permanent digital storage device such as a CD. Because the playlist is stored in volatile memory, it is lost whenever power to the CD player is lost, whether by turning off the digital audio/visual actuator device or accidentally losing power. The playlist must therefore be recreated every time power is lost to the digital audio/visual actuator device. Moreover, storing the created playlist in the volatile memory of the digital audio/visual actuator device requires that the playlist must be actuated by the digital audio/visual actuator device itself and not by a more convenient means, such as a remote control unit.
In light of the above discussion, it is clear that there exists a need in the art for several improvements over the prior art way of creating a customized playlist to be played by a digital audio/visual actuator device. First, there is a need to be able to overcome the problems associated with the typically weak and cumbersome human interface required to create a customized playlist on a digital audio/visual actuator device so that the user may easily and readily create the customized playlist. Second, there is a need to be able to create a customized playlist that is permanently available to the user, unlike the prior art playlist that is stored in volatile memory. Third, there is a need in the art to be able to actuate the customized playlist by means, such as a remote control unit, other than the digital audio/visual actuator device.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to create a customized playlist to be played by a digital audio/visual actuator device.
It is further an object of the invention to be able to easily create the customized playlist to be played by a digital audio/visual actuator device, thereby overcoming the problems associated with the weak human interface required by the prior art to create a playlist.
It is yet another object of the invention to create a customized playlist for a digital audio/visual actuator device that is permanently available to the user, unlike the prior art in which the playlist is stored in volatile memory.
It is still yet another object of the invention to create a customized playlist to be played by a digital audio/visual actuator device that may be actuated by means other than by the digital audio/visual actuator device, such as by a remote control unit.
Therefore, according to the present invention, a custom playlist capable of being played by a digital audio/visual actuator device may be easily created and modified by an external device that uses a user interface, such as a graphical user interface, characterized as being user-friendly. Alternately, the software of the digital audio/visual actuator device can create and modify the custom playlist with a minimum of user intervention required. The custom playlist is created by adding one or more desired tracks to a custom playlist file that is then saved in non-volatile memory of the digital audio/user actuator device.
Once the playlist is created, it may then be easily modified if so desired at any future time by performing such functions as adding tracks, deleting tracks, and rearranging tracks of the playlist through the external device. Again, these functions may be performed by the user through the interface of the external device or by software resident on the digital audio/visual actuator device. Following any modification of the playlist, it is again saved to non-volatile memory of the digital audio/visual actuator device. The playlist may be played by the digital audio/visual actuator device at any time after it has been created and saved. According to an aspect of the present invention, the digital audio/visual actuator device may also play the playlist upon receipt of appropriate commands from a remote control unit in communication with the digital audio/visual actuator device.